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42. max weber protestant sects and the spirit of capitalism

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Max Weber – The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism 1For some time in the United States a principled separation of state and church hasexisted. This separation is carried through so strictly that there is not even an officialcensus of denominations, for it would be considered against the law for the state evento ask the citizen for his denomination. We shall not here discuss the practicalimportance of this principle of the relation between religious organizations and the state.1a We are interested, rather, in the fact that scarcely two and a half decades ago thenumber of persons without church affiliation in the U.S.A. was estimated to be onlyabout 6 per cent; 2 and this despite the absence of all those highly effective premiumswhich most of the European states then placed upon affiliation with certain privilegedchurches and despite the immense immigration to the U.S.A.It should be realized, in addition, that church affiliation in the U.S.A. rings with itincomparably higher financial burdens, especially for the poor, than anywhere inGermany. Published family budgets prove this, and I have personally known of manyburdened cases in a congregation in a city on Lake Erie, which was almost entirelycomposed of German immigrant lumberjacks. Their regular contributions for religiouspurposes amounted to almost $80 annually, being paid out of an average annual incomeof about $1,000. Everyone knows that even a small fraction of this financial burden inGermany would lead to a mass exodus from the church. But quite apart from that,nobody who visited the United States fifteen or twenty years ago, that is, before therecent Europeanization of the country began, could overlook the very intense church-mindedness which then prevailed in all regions not yet flooded by European immigrants.2a Every old travel look reveals that formerly church-mindedness in America wentunquestioned, as compared with recent decades, and was even far stronger. Here weare especially interested in one aspect of this situation.Hardly a generation ago when businessmen were establishing themselves and makingnew social contacts, they encountered the question: To what church do you belong?This was asked unobtrusively and in a manner that seemed to be apropos, but evidentlyit was never asked accidentally. Even in Brooklyn, New Yorks twin city, this oldertradition was retained to a strong degree, and the more so in communities less exposedto the influence of immigration. This question reminds one of the typical Scotch tabledhote, where a quarter of a century ago the continental European on Sundays almostalways had to face the situation of a ladys asking, What service did you attend today?Or, if the Continental, as the oldest guest, should happen to he seated at the head ofthe table, the waiter when serving the soup would ask him: Sir, the prayer, please. InPortree (Skye) on one beautiful Sunday I faced this typical question and did not knowany letter way out than to remark: I am a member of the Badische Landeskirche andcould not find a chapel of my church in Portree. The ladies were pleased and satisfiedwith the answer. Oh, he doesnt attend any service except that of his owndenomination!If one looked more closely at the matter in the United States, one could easily see thatthe question of religious affiliation was almost always posed in social life and in business

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life which depended on permanent and credit relations. However, as mentioned above,the American authorities never posed the question. Why?First, a few personal observations [from 1904] may serve as illustrations. On a longrailroad journey through what was then Indian territory, the author, sitting next to atraveling salesman of undertakers hardware (iron letters for tombstones), casuallymentioned the still impressively strong church-mindedness. Thereupon the salesmanremarked, Sir, for my part everybody may believe or not believe as he pleases; but if Isaw a farmer or a businessman not belonging to any church at all, I wouldnt trust himwith fifty cents. Why pay me, if he doesnt believe in anything? Now that was asomewhat vague motivation.The matter became somewhat clearer from the story of a German-born nose-and-throat specialist, who had established himself in a large city on the Ohio River and whotold me of the visit of his first patient. Upon the doctors request, he lay down upon thecouch to be examined with the [aid of a] nose reflector. The patient sat up once andremarked with dignity and emphasis, Sir, I am a member of the Baptist Church in --Street. Puzzled about what meaning this circumstance might have for the disease of thenose and its treatment, the doctor discreetly inquired about the matter from anAmerican colleague. The colleague smilingly informed him that the patients statement ofhis church membership was merely to say: Dont worry about the fees. But why shouldit mean precisely that? Perhaps this will become still clearer from a third happening.On a beautiful clear Sunday afternoon early in October I attended a baptism ceremonyof a Baptist congregation. I was in the company of some relatives who were farmers inthe backwoods some miles out of M. [a county seat] in North Carolina. The baptismwas to take place in a pool fed by a rook which descended from the Blue RidgeMountains, visible in the distance. It was cold and it had been freezing during the night.Masses of farmers families were standing all around the slopes of the hills; they hadcome, some from great distances, some from the neighborhood, in their light two-wheeled buggies.The preacher in a black suit stood waist deep in the pond. After preparations of varioussorts, about ten persons of both sexes in their Sunday-best stepped into the pond, oneafter another. They avowed their faith and then were immersed completely--the womenin the preachers arms. They came up, shaking and shivering in their wet clothes,stepped out of the pond, and everybody congratulated them. They were quicklywrapped in thick blankets and then they drove home. One of my relatives commentedthat faith provides unfailing protection against sneezes. Another relative stood besideme and, being unchurchly in accordance with German traditions, he looked on, spittingdisdainfully over his shoulder. He spoke to one of those baptised, Hello, Bill, wasnt thewater pretty cool? and received the very earnest reply, Jeff, I thought of some prettyhot place (Hell!), and so I didnt mind the cool water. During the immersion of one ofthe young men, my relative was startled.Look at him, he said. I told you so!

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When I asked him after the ceremony, Why did you anticipate the baptism of thatman? he answered, Because he wants to open a bank in M.Are there so many Baptists around that he can make a living?Not at all, but once being baptised he will get the patronage of the whole region and hewill outcompete everybody.Further questions of why and by what means led to the following conclusion:Admission to the local Baptist congregation follows only upon the most carefulprobation and after closest inquiries into conduct going back to early childhood(Disorderly conduct? Frequenting taverns? Dance? Theatre? Card Playing? Untimelymeeting of liability? Other Frivolities?) The congregation still adhered strictly to thereligious tradition.Admission to the congregation is recognized as an absolute guarantee of the moralqualities of a gentleman, especially of those qualities required in business matters.Baptism secures to the individual the deposits of the whole region and unlimited creditwithout any competition. He is a made man. Further observation confirmed that these,or at least very similar phenomena, recur in the most varied regions. In general, onlythose men had success in business who belonged to Methodist or Baptist or other sectsor sectlike conventicles. When a sect member moved to a different place, or if he was atraveling salesman, he carried the certificate of his congregation with him; and therebyhe found not only easy contact with sect members but, above all, he found crediteverywhere. If he got into economic straits through no fault of his own, the sectarranged his affairs, gave guarantees to the creditors, and helped him in every way, oftenaccording to the Biblical principle, "lend, hoping for nothing in return"(Luke 6:35)The expectation of the creditors that his sect, for the sake of their prestige, would notallow creditors to suffer losses on behalf of a sect member was not, however, decisivefor his opportunities. What was decisive was the fact that a fairly reputable sect wouldonly accept for membership one whose conduct made him appear to be morallyqualified beyond doubt.It is crucial that sect membership meant a certificate of moral qualification and especiallyof business morals for the individual. This stands in contrast to membership in a churchinto which one is born and which lets grace shine over the righteous and theunrighteous alike. Indeed, a church is a corporation which organizes grace andadministers religious gifts of grace, like an endowed foundation. Affiliation with thechurch is, in principle, obligatory and hence proves nothing with regard to the membersqualities. A sect, however, is a voluntary association of only those who, according to theprinciple, are religiously and morally qualified. If one finds voluntary reception of hismembership, by virtue of religious probation, he joins the sect voluntarily.It is, of course, an established fact that this selection has often been very stronglycounteracted, precisely in America, through the proselyting of souls by competing sects,

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which, in part, was strongly determined by the material interests of the preachers.Hence, cartels for the restriction of proselyting have frequently existed among thecompeting denominations. Such cartels were formed, for instance, in order to excludethe easy wedding of a person who had been divorced for reasons which, from areligious point of view, were considered insufficient. Religious organizations thatfacilitated remarriage had great attraction. Some Baptist communities are said at timesto have been lax in this respect, whereas the Catholic as well as the Lutheran (Missouri)churches were praised for their strict correctness. This correctness, however, allegedlyreduced the membership of both churches.Expulsion from ones sect for moral offenses has meant, economically, loss of credit and,socially, being declassed.Numerous observations during the following months confirmed not only that church-mindedness per se, although still (1904) rather important, was rapidly dying out; but theparticularly important trait, mentioned above, was definitely confirmed. In metropolitanareas I was spontaneously told, in several cases, that a speculator in undeveloped realestate would regularly erect a church building, often an extremely modest one; then hewould hire a candidate from one of the various theological seminaries, pay him $500 to$600, and hold out to him a splendid position as a preacher for life if he would gather acongregation and thus preach the building terrain full. Deteriorated churchlikestructures which marked failures were shown to me. For the most part, however, thepreachers were said to be successful. Neighborly contact, Sunday School, and so on,were said to be indispensable to the newcomer, but above all association with morallyreliable neighbors.Competition among sects is strong, among other things, through the kind of materialand spiritual offerings at evening teas of the congregations. Among genteel churches also,musical presentations contribute to this competition. (A tenor in Trinity Church,Boston, who allegedly had to sing on Sundays only, at that time received $8,000.)Despite this sharp competition, the sects often maintained fairly good mutual relations.For instance, in the service of the Methodist church which I attended the Baptistceremony of the baptism, which I mentioned above, was recommended as a spectacle toedify everybody. In the main, the congregations refused entirely to listen to thepreaching of dogma and to confessional distinctions. Ethics alone could be offered. Inthose instances where I listened to sermons for the middle classes, the typical citizenrymorality, respectable and solid, to be sure, and of the most homely and sober kind, waspreached. But the sermons were delivered with obvious inner conviction; the preacherwas often moved.Today the kind of denomination [to which one belongs] is rather irrelevant. It does notmatter whether one be Freemason, 2b Christian Scientist, Adventist, Quaker, or whatnot. What is decisive is that one be admitted to membership by ballot, after anexamination and an ethical probation in the sense of the virtues which are at a premiumfor the inner-worldly asceticism of Protestantism and hence, for the ancient puritantradition. Then, the same effect could be observed.

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Closer scrutiny revealed the steady progress of the characteristic process ofsecularization, to which in modern times all phenomena that originated in religiousconceptions succumb. Not only religious associations, hence sects, had this effect onAmerican life. Sects exercised this influence, rather, in a steadily decreasing proportion.If one paid some attention it was striking to observe (even fifteen years ago) thatsurprisingly many men among the American middle classes (always outside of the quitemodern metropolitan areas and the immigration centers) were wearing a little badge (ofvarying color) in the buttonhole, which reminded one very closely of the rosette of theFrench Legion of Honor.When asked what it meant, people regularly mentioned an association with a sometimesadventurous and fantastic name. And it became obvious that its significance and purposeconsisted in the following: Almost always the association functioned as a burial insurance,besides offering greatly varied services. But often, and especially in those areas leasttouched by modern disintegration, the association offered the member the (ethical)claim for brotherly help on the part of every brother who had the means. If he faced aneconomic emergency for which he himself was not to be blamed, he could make thisclaim. And in several instances that came to my notice at the time, this claim againfollowed the very principle, "lend, hoping for nothing in return," Luke 6:35 or at least avery low rate of interest prevailed. Apparently, such claims were willingly recognized bythe members of the brotherhood. Furthermore--and this is the main point in thisinstance--membership was again acquired through balloting after investigation and adetermination of moral worth. And hence the badge in the buttonhole meant, I am agentleman patented after investigation and probation and guaranteed by my membership.Again, this meant, in business life above all, tested credit worthiness. One could observethat business opportunities were often decisively influenced by such legitimation.All these phenomena, which seemed to be rather rapidly disintegrating --at least thereligious organizations--were essentially confined to the middle classes. Some culturedAmericans often dismissed these facts briefly and with a certain angry disdain ashumbug or backwardness, or they even denied them; many of them actually did notknow anything about them, as was affirmed to me by William James. Yet these survivalswere still alive in many different fields, and sometimes in forms which appeared to begrotesque.These associations were especially the typical vehicles of social ascent into the circle ofthe entrepreneurial middle class. They served to diffuse and to maintain the citizenrycapitalist business ethos among the broad strata of the middle classes (the farmersincluded).As is well known, not a few (one may well say the majority of the older generation) ofthe American promoters, captains of industry, of the multi-millionaires and trustmagnates belonged formally to sects, especially to the Baptists. However, in the natureof the case, these persons were often affiliated for merely conventional reasons, as inGermany, and only in order to legitimate themselves in personal and social life --not inorder to legitimate themselves as businessmen: during the age of the Puritans, such

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economic supermen did not require such a crutch, and their religiosity was, of course,often of a more than dubious sincerity. The middle classes, above all the strata ascendingwith and out of the middle classes, were the bearers of that specific religious orientationwhich one must, indeed, beware viewing among them as only opportunisticallydetermined. 2c Yet one must never overlook that without the universal diffusion of thesequalities and principles of a methodical way of life, qualities which were maintainedthrough these religious communities, capitalism today, even in America, would not bewhat it is. In the history of any economic area on earth there is no epoch, [except]those quite rigid in feudalism or patrimonialism, in which capitalist figures of the kind ofPierpont Morgan, Rockefeller, Jay Gould and others were absent. Only the technicalmeans which they used for the acquisition of wealth have changed (of course!). Theystood and they stand beyond good and evil. But, however high one may otherwiseevaluate their importance for economic transformation, they have never been decisivein determining what economic mentality was to dominate a given epoch and a given area.Above all, they were not the creators and they were not to become the bearers of thespecifically Occidental citizenry mentality.This is not the place to discuss in detail the political and social importance of thereligious sects and the numerous similarly exclusive associations and clubs in Americawhich are based upon recruitment by ballot. The entire life of a typical Yankee of thelast generation led through a series of such exclusive associations, beginning with theBoys Club in school, proceeding to the Athletic Club or the Greek Letter Society or toanother student club of some nature, then onward to one of the numerous notableclubs of businessmen and the citizens, or finally to the clubs of the metropolitanplutocracy. To gain admission was identical to a ticket of ascent, especially with acertificate before the forum of ones self-feeling; to gain admission meant to haveproved oneself. A student in college who was not admitted to any club (or quasi-society) whatsoever was usually a sort of pariah. (Suicides because of failure to beadmitted have come to my notice.) A businessman, clerk, technician, or doctor who hadthe same fate usually was of questionable ability to serve. Today, numerous clubs of thissort are bearers of those tendencies leading toward aristocratic status groups whichcharacterize contemporary American development. These status groups developalongside of and, what has to be well noted, partly in contrast to the naked plutocracy.In America mere money in itself also purchases power, but not social honor. Of course,it is a means of acquiring social prestige. It is the same in Germany and everywhere else;except in Germany the appropriate avenue to social honor led from the purchase of afeudal estate to the foundation of an entailed estate, and acquisition of titular nobility,which in turn facilitated the reception of the grandchildren in aristocratic society. InAmerica, the old tradition respected the self-made man more than the heir, and theavenue to social honor consisted in affiliation with a genteel fraternity in a distinguishedcollege, formerly with a distinguished sect (for instance, Presbyterian, in whose churchesin New York one could find soft cushions and fans in the pews). At the present time,affiliation with a distinguished club is essential above all else. In addition, the kind ofhome is important (in the street which in middle-sized cities is almost never lacking)and the kind of dress and sport. Only recently descent from the Pilgrim fathers, from

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Pocahontas and other Indian ladies, et cetera has become important. This is not theplace for a more detailed treatment. There are masses of translating bureaus andagencies of all sorts concerned with reconstructing the pedigrees of the plutocracy. Allthese phenomena, often highly grotesque, belong in the broad field of theEuropeanization of American society.In the past and up to the very present, it has been a characteristic precisely of thespecifically American democracy that it did not constitute a formless sand heap ofindividuals, but rather a buzzing complex of strictly exclusive, yet voluntary associations.Not so long ago these associations still did not recognize the prestige of birth andinherited wealth, of the office and educational diploma; at least they recognized thesethings to such a low degree as has only very rarely been the case in the rest of theworld. Yet, even so, these associations were far from accepting anybody with open armsas an equal. To be sure, fifteen years ago an American farmer would not have led hisguest past a plowing farmhand (American born!) in the field without making his guestshake hands with the worker after formally introducing them.Formerly, in a typical American club nobody would remember that the two members,for instance, who play billiards once stood in the relation of boss and clerk. Hereequality of gentlemen prevailed absolutely. 2d To be sure, the American workers wifeaccompanying the trade unionist to lunch had completely accommodated herself indress and behavior, in a somewhat plainer and more awkward fashion, to the citizenryladys model.He who wished to be fully recognized in this democracy, in whatever position, had notonly to conform to the conventions of citizenry society, the very strict mens fashionsincluded, but as a rule he had to be able to show that he had succeeded in gainingadmission by ballot to one of the sects, clubs, or fraternal societies, no matter what kind,were it only recognized as sufficiently legitimate. And he had to maintain himself in thesociety by proving himself to be a gentleman. The parallel in Germany consists in theimportance of the Couleur 2e and the commission of an officer of the reserve forcommercium and connubium, and the great status significance of qualifying to givesatisfaction by duel. The thing is the same, but the direction and material consequencecharacteristically differ.He who did not succeed in joining was no gentleman; he who despised doing so, as wasusual among Germans, 2f had to take the hard road, and especially so in business life.However, as mentioned above, we shall not here analyze the social significance of theseconditions, which are undergoing a profound transformation. First, we are interested inthe fact that the modern position of the secular clubs and societies with recruitment byballot is largely the product of a process of secularization. Their position is derived fromthe far more exclusive importance of the prototype of these voluntary associations, towit, the sects. They stem, indeed, from the sects in the homeland of genuineYankeedom, the North Atlantic states. Let us recall, first, that the universal and equalfranchise within American democracy (of the Whites! for Negroes and all mixtures have,

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even today, no actual franchise) and likewise the separation of state and church areonly achievements of the recent past, beginning essentially with the nineteenth century.Let us remember that during the colonial period in the central areas of New England,especially in Massachusetts, full citizenship status in the church congregation was theprecondition for full citizenship in the state (besides some other prerequisites). Thereligious congregation indeed determined admission or non-admission to politicalcitizenship status. 3The decision was made according to whether or not the person had proved his religiousqualification through conduct, in the broadest meaning of the word, as was the caseamong all Puritan sects. The Quakers in Pennsylvania were not in any lesser waymasters of that state until some time before the War of Independence. This was actuallythe case, though formally they were not the only full political citizens. They were politicalmasters only by virtue of extensive gerrymandering.The tremendous social significance of admission to full enjoyment of the rights of thesectarian congregation, especially the privilege of being admitted to the Lords Supper,worked among the sects in the direction of breeding that ascetist professional ethicwhich was adequate to modern capitalism during the period of its origin. It can bedemonstrated that everywhere, including Europe, the religiosity of the ascetist sects hasfor several centuries worked in the same way as has been illustrated by the personalexperiences mentioned above for [the case of] America.When focusing on the religious background 4 of these Protestant sects, we find in theirliterary documents, especially among those of the Quakers and Baptists up to andthroughout the seventeenth century, again and again jubilation over the fact that thesinful children of the world distrust one another in business but that they haveconfidence in the religiously determined righteousness of the pious. 5Hence, they give credit and deposit their money only with the pious, and they makepurchases in their stores because there, and there alone, they are given honest and fixedprices. As is known, the Baptists have always claimed to have first raised this price policyto a principle. In addition to the Baptists, the Quakers raise the claim, as the followingquotation shows, to which Mr. Eduard Bernstein drew my attention at the time:But it was not only in matters which related to the law of the land where the primitivemembers held their words and engagements sacred. This trait was remarked to he trueof them in their concerns of trade. On their first appearance as a society, they sufferedas tradesmen because others, displeased with the peculiarity of their manners, withdrewtheir custom from their shops. But in a little time the great outcry against them was thatthey got the trade of the country into their hands. This outcry arose in part from astrict exemption of all commercial agreements between them and others and becausethey never asked two prices for the commodities they sold. 6The view that the gods bless with riches the man who pleases them, through sacrifice orthrough his kind of conduct, was indeed diffused all over the world. However, the

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Protestant sects consciously brought this idea into connection with this kind of religiousconduct, according to the principle of early capitalism: Honesty is the best policy. Thisconnection is found, although not quite exclusively, among these Protestant sects, butwith characteristic continuity and consistency it is found only among them.The whole typically citizenry ethic was from the beginning common to all ascetic sectsand conventicles and it is identical with the ethic practiced by the sects in America up tothe very present. The Methodists, for example, held to be forbidden:(1) to make words when buying and selling (haggling)(2) to trade with commodities before the custom tariff has been paid on them(3) to charge rates of interest higher than the law of the country permits(4) to gather treasures on earth (meaning the transformation of investment capital intofunded wealth(5) to borrow without being sure of ones ability to pay back the debt(6) luxuries of all sortsBut it is not only this ethic, already discussed in detail, 6a which goes back to the earlybeginnings of ascetic sects. Above all, the social premiums, the means of discipline, and,in general, the whole organizational oasis of Protestant sectarianism with all itsramifications reach back to those beginnings. The survivals in contemporary America arethe derivatives of a religious regulation of life which once worked with penetratingefficiency. Let us, in a brief survey, clarify the nature of these sects and the mode anddirection of their operation.Within Protestantism the principle of the believer church first emerged distinctlyamong the Baptists in Zurich in 1523-4. 7 This principle restricted the congregation totrue Christians; hence, it meant a voluntary association of really sanctified peoplesegregated from the world. Thomas Munzer had rejected infant baptism; but he did nottake the next step, which demanded repeated baptism of adults baptized as children(anabaptism). Following Thomas Munzer, the Zurich Baptists in 1525 introduced adultbaptism (possibly including anabaptism). Migrant journeymen-artisans were the mainbearers of the Baptist movement. After each suppression they carried it to new areas.Here we shall not discuss in detail the individual forms of this voluntarist inner-worldlyasceticism of the old Baptists, the Mennonites, the Baptists, the Quakers, nor shall weagain describe how every ascetic denomination, Calvinism 8 and Methodism included,were again and again constrained into the same path.This resulted either in the conventicle of the exemplary Christians within the church(Pietism), or else the community of religious full citizens, legitimated as faultless,became masters over the church. The rest of the members merely belonged as a passivestatus group, as minor Christians subject to discipline (Independents).In Protestantism the external and internal conflict of the two structural principles--ofthe church as a compulsory association for the administration of grace, and of the sectas a voluntary association of religiously qualified persons--runs through the centuriesfrom Zwingli to Kuyper and Stocker. Here we merely wish to consider those

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consequences of the voluntarist principle which are practically important in theirinfluence upon conduct. In addition, we recall merely that the decisive idea of keepingthe Lords Supper pure, and therefore excluding unsanctified persons, led also to a wayof treating church discipline among those denominations which failed to form sects. Itwas especially the predestinarian Puritans who, in effect, approached the discipline ofthe sects. 9The central social significance of the Lords Supper for the Christian communities isevidenced in this. For the sects themselves, the idea of the purity of the sacramentalcommunion was decisive at the very time of their origin. 10 Immediately the firstconsistent voluntarist, Browne, in his Treatise of Reformation without tarying for anie(presumably 1582), emphasized the compulsion to hold communion at the LordsSupper with wicked men as the main reason for rejecting Episcopalianism andPresbyterianism. 11 The Presbyterian church struggled in vain to settle the problem.Already under Elizabeth (Wandworth Conference) this was the decisive point. 11aThe question of who might exclude a person from the Lords Supper played an ever-recurrent role in the Parliament of the English Revolution. At first (1645) ministers andelders, that is, laypersons, were to decide these matters freely. Parliament attempted todetermine those cases in which exclusion should be permissible. All other cases were tobe made dependent on the consent of Parliament. This meant Erastianism, againstwhich the Westminster Assembly protested sharply.The Independent party excelled in that it admitted only persons with tickets tocommunion, besides the local residents recognized to be in good standing. Membersfrom outside congregations received tickets only upon recommendation by qualifiedmembers. The certificates of qualification (letters of recommendation), which wereissued in case of moving to another place or in case of travel, also occur in theseventeenth century. 12 Within the official church, Baxters conventicles (associations),which in 1657 were introduced in sixteen counties, were to be established as a kind ofvoluntary censorship bureau. These would assist the minister in determining thequalification and exclusion of scandalous persons from the Lords Supper. 13 The fivedissenting brethren of the Westminster Assembly--upper-class refugees who had livedin Holland--had already aimed at similar ends when they proposed to permitvoluntaristic congregations to exist beside the parish and also to grant them the right tovote for delegates to the synod.The entire church history of New England is filled with struggles over such questions:who was to be admitted to the sacraments (or, for instance, as a godfather), whetherthe children of non-admitted persons could be baptized, 13a under what clauses the lattercould be admitted, and similar questions. The difficulty was that not only was the worthyperson allowed to receive the Lords Supper, but he had to receive it. 14 Hence, if thebeliever doubted his own worth and decided to stay away from the Lords Supper, thedecision did not remove his sin. 15 The congregation, on the other hand, was jointlyresponsible to the Lord for keeping unworthy and especially reprobated persons 16 awayfrom communion, for puritys sake. Thus the congregation was jointly and especially

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responsible for the administration of the sacrament by a worthy minister in a state ofgrace. Therewith, the primordial problems of church constitution were resurrected. Invain Baxters compromise proposal attempted to mediate by suggesting that at least incase of an emergency the sacrament should be received from an unworthy minister,thus from one whose conduct was questionable. 17The ancient Donatist principle of personal charisma stood in hard and unmitigatedopposition to the principle of the church as an institution administering grace, 18 as inthe time of early Christianity. The principle of instituted grace was radically establishedin the Catholic Church through the priests indelible character, but it also dominated theofficial churches of the Reformation. The uncompromising radicalism of theIndependentist world of ideas rested upon the religious responsibility of thecongregation as a whole. This held for the worthiness of the ministers as well as for thebrethren admitted to communion. And that is how things still stand in principle.As is known, the Kuyper schism in Holland during recent decades had far-reachingpolitical ramifications. It originated in the following manner: Agai nst the claims of theSynodal church government of the Herformde Kerk der Nederlanden, the elders of achurch in Amsterdam, hence laypersons, with the later prime minister Kuyper (who wasalso a plain lay elder) at the helm, refused to acknowledge the confirmation certificatesof preachers of outside congregations as sufficient for admission to communion if fromtheir standpoint such outside preachers were unworthy or unbelieving. 19 In substance,this was precisely the antagonism between Presbyterians and Independents during thesixteenth century; for consequences of the greatest importance emerged from the jointresponsibility of the congregation.Next to the voluntarist principle, that is, free admission of the qualified, and of thequalified alone, as members of the congregation, we find the principle of the sovereigntyof the local sacramental community. Only the local religious community, by virtue ofpersonal acquaintance and investigation, could judge whether a member were qualified.But a church government of an inter-local association could not do so, however freelyelected such church government might be. The local congregation could discriminateonly if the number of members were restricted. Hence, in principle, only relatively smallcongregations were appropriate. 20Where the communities were too large for this, either conventicles were formed, as inPietism, or the members were organized in groups, which, in turn, were the bearers ofchurch discipline, as in Methodism. 21The extraordinarily strict moral discipline 22 of the self-governing congregationconstituted the third principle. This was unavoidable because of the interest in thepurity of the sacramental community (or, as among the Quakers, the interest in thepurity of the community of prayer). The discipline of the ascetic sect was, in fact, farmore rigorous than the discipline of any church. In this respect, the sect resembles themonastic order. The sect discipline is also analogous to monastic discipline in that itestablished the principle of the novitiate. 22a In contrast to the principles of the official

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Protestant churches, persons expelled because of moral offenses were often denied allintercourse with the members of the congregation. The sect thus invoked an absoluteboycott against them, which included business life. Occasionally the sect avoided anyrelation with non-brethren except in cases of absolute necessity. 23 And the sect placeddisciplinary power predominantly into the hands of laypersons. No spiritual authoritycould assume the communitys joint responsibility before God. The weight of the layelders was very great even among the Presbyterians. However, the Independents, andeven more, the Baptists signified a struggle against the domination of the congregationby theologians. 24 In exact correspondence this struggle led naturally to theclericalization of the lay members, who now took over the functions of moral controlthrough self-government, admonition, and possible excommunication. 25The domination of laypersons in the church found its expression, in part, in the questfor freedom of the layman to preach (liberty of prophesying). 26 In legitimizing thisdemand, reference was made to the conditions of the early Christian community. Thisdemand was not only very shocking to the Lutheran idea of the pastoral office but alsoto the Presbyterian idea of Gods order. The domination of laypersons, in part, found itsexpression in an opposition to any professional theologian and preacher. Only charisma,neither training nor office, should be recognized. 26a The Quakers have adhered to theprinciple that in the religious assembly anyone could speak, but he alone should speakwho was moved by the spirit. Hence no professional minister exists at all. To be sure,today this is, in all probability, nowhere radically effected. The official legend is thatmembers who, in the experience of the congregation, are especially accessible to thespirit during service are seated upon a special bench opposite the congregation. Inprofound silence the people wait for the Spirit to take possession of one of them (or ofsome other member of the congregation). But during service in a Pennsylvania college,unfortunately and against my hopes, the spirit did not take hold of the plainly andbeautifully costumed old lady who was seated on the bench and whose charisma was sohighly praised. Instead, undoubtedly by agreement, the spirit took hold of a brave collegelibrarian who gave a very learned lecture on the concept of the saint.To be sure, other sects have not drawn such radical conclusions, or at least not forgood. However, either the minister is not active principally as a hireling, 27 holding onlyhonorific position, or else he serves for voluntary honorific donations. 27a Again hisministerial service may be a secondary occupation and only for the refunding of hisexpenses; 27b or he can be dismissed at any time; or a sort of missionary organizationprevails with itinerant preachers 28 working only once in a while in the same circuit, asis the case with Methodism. 29 Where the office (in the traditional sense) and hence thetheological qualification were maintained, 30 such skill was considered as a meretechnical and specialist prerequisite.However, the really decisive quality was the charisma of the state of grace, and theauthorities were geared to discern it. Authorities, like Cromwells triers (local bodiesfor the handling of certificates of religious qualification) and the ejectors (ministerialdisciplinary office), 30a had to examine the fitness of the ministers to serve. Thecharismatic character of authority is seen to have been preserved in the same way in

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which the charismatic character of the membership in the community itself waspreserved. Just as Cromwells army of Saints allowed only religiously qualified persons topass the Lords Supper to them, so Cromwells soldiers refused to go into battle underan officer who did not belong to his sacramental community of the religiously qualified.31Internally, among the sect members, the spirit of early Christian brotherliness prevailed,at least among the early Baptists and derived denominations; or at least brothe rlinesswas demanded. 32 Among some sects it was considered taboo to call on the law courts.32a In case of need, mutual aid was obligatory. 33 Naturally, business dealings with non-members were not interdicted (except occasionally among wholly radical communities).Yet it was self-understood that one preferred the brethren. 33a From the very beginning,one finds the system of certificates (concerning membership and conduct), 34 whichwere given to members who moved to another place. The charities of the Quakerswere so highly developed that in consequence of the burdens incurred their inclinationto propagandize was finally crippled. The cohesiveness of the congregations was so greatthat, with good reason, it is said to be one of the factors determining New Englandsettlements. In contrast to the South, New England settlements were generally compactand, from the beginning, strongly urban in character. 34aIt is obvious that in all these points the modern functions of American sects and sectlikeassociations, as described in the beginning of this essay, are revealed as straightderivatives, rudiments, and survivals of those conditions which once prevailed in allascetic sects and conventicles. Today they are decaying. Testimony for the sectariansimmensely exclusive pride in caste has existed from the very beginning. 34bNow, what part of this whole development was and is actually decisive for our problem?Excommunication in the Middle Ages also had political and civic consequences. Formallythis was even harsher than where sect freedom existed. Moreover, in the Middle Agesonly Christians could be full citizens. During the Middle Ages it was also possible toproceed through the disciplinary powers of the church against a bishop who would notpay his debts, and, as Aloys Schulte has beautifully shown, this possibility gave the bishopa credit rating over and above a secular prince. Likewise, the fact that a PrussianLieutenant was subject to discharge if he was incapable of paying off debts provided ahigher credit rating for him. And the same held for the German fraternity student. Oralconfession and the disciplinary power of the church during the Middle Ages alsoprovided the means to enforce church discipline effectively. Finally, to secure a legalclaim, the opportunity provided by the oath was exploited to secure excommunicationof the debtor.In all these cases, however, the forms of behavior that were favored or tabooed throughsuch conditions and means differed totally from those which Protestant asceticism bredor suppressed. With the lieutenant, for instance, or the fraternity student, and probablywith the bishop as well, the enhanced credit rating certainly did not rest upon thebreeding of personal qualities suitable for business; and following up this remark directly:

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even though the effects in all three cases were intended to have the same direction,they were worked out in quite different ways. The medieval, like the Lutheran churchdiscipline, first, was vested in the hands of the ministerial officeholder; secondly, thisdiscipline worked --as far as it was effective at all--through authoritarian means; and,thirdly, it punished and placed premiums upon concrete individual acts.The discipline of the Puritans and of the sects was vested, first, at least in part and oftenwholly, in the hands of laypersons. Secondly, it worked through the necessity of oneshaving to hold ones own; and, thirdly, it bred or, if one wishes, selected qualities. Thelast point is the most important one.The member of the sect (or conventicle) had to have qualities of a certain kind in orderto enter the community circle. Being endowed with these qualities was important forthe development of rational modern capitalism, as has been shown in the fi rst essay. 34cIn order to hold his own in this circle, the member had to prove repeatedly that he wasendowed with these qualities. They were constantly and continuously bred in him. For,like his bliss in the beyond, his whole social existence in the here and now dependedupon his proving himself. The Catholic confession of sins was, to repeat, by comparisona means of relieving the person from the tremendous internal pressure under which thesect member in his conduct was constantly held. How certain orthodox and heterodoxreligious communities of the Middle Ages have been forerunners of the asceticdenominations of Protestantism shall not here and now be discussed.According to all experience there is no stronger means of breeding traits than throughthe necessity of holding ones own in the circle of ones associates. The continuous andunobtrusive ethical discipline of the sects was, therefore, related to authoritarian churchdiscipline as rational breeding and selection are related to ordering and forbidding.In this as in almost every other respect, the Puritan sects are the most specific bearersof the inner-worldly form of asceticism. Moreover, they are the most consistent and, ina certain sense, the only consistent antithesis to the universalist Catholic Church--acompulsory organization for the administration of grace. The Puritan sects put the mostpowerful individual interest of social self-esteem in the service of this breeding of traits.Hence individual motives and personal self-interests were also placed in the service ofmaintaining and propagating the citizenry Puritan ethic, with all its ramifications. This isabsolutely decisive for its penetrating and for its powerful effect.To repeat, it is not the ethical doctrine of a religion, but that form of ethical conductupon which premiums are placed that matters. 35 Such premiums operate through theform and the condition of the respective goods of salvation. And such conductconstitutes ones specific ethos in the sociological sense of the word.- For Puritanism,that conduct was a certain methodical, rational way of life which--given certainconditions-- paved the way for the spirit of modern capitalism. The premiums wereplaced upon proving oneself before God in the sense of attaining salvation--which isfound in all Puritan denominations--and proving oneself before men in the sense ofsocially holding ones own within the Puritan sects. Both aspects were mutually

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supplementary and operated in the same direction: they helped to deliver the spirit ofmodern capitalism, its specific ethos: the ethos of the modern citizenry middle classes.The ascetic conventicles and sects formed one of the most important historicalfoundations of modern individualism. Their radical break away from patriarchal andauthoritarian bondage, 36 as well as their way of interpreting the statement that oneowes more obedience to God than to man, was especially important.Finally, in order to understand the nature of these ethical effects, a comparative remarkis required. In the guilds of the Middle Ages there was frequently a control of the generalethical standard of the members similar to that exercised by the discipline of the asceticProtestant sects. 37 But the unavoidable difference in the effects of guild and of sect uponthe economic conduct of the individual is obvious.The guild united members of the same occupation; hence it united competitors. It did soin order to limit competition as well as the rational striving for profit which operatedthrough competition. The guild trained for civic virtues and, in a certain sense, was thebearer of citizenry rationalism (a point which will not be discussed here in detail). Theguild accomplished this through a subsistence policy and through traditionalism. In sofar as guild regulation of the economy gained effectiveness, its practical results are wellknown.The sects, on the other hand, united men through the selection and the breeding ofethically qualified fellow believers. Their membership was not based upon apprenticeshipor upon the family relations of technically qualified members of an occupation. The sectcontrolled and regulated the members conduct exclusively in the sense of formalrighteousness and methodical asceticism. It was devoid of the purpose of a materialsubsistence policy which handicapped an expansion of the rational striving for profit.The capitalist success of a guild member undermined the spirit of the guild--as happenedin England and France --and hence capitalist success was shunned. But the capitalistsuccess of a sect brother, if legally attained, was proof of his worth and of his state ofgrace, and it raised the prestige and the propaganda chances of the sect. Such successwas therefore welcome, as the several statements quoted above show. The organizationof free labor in guilds, in their Occidental medieval form, has certainly--very muchagainst their intention--not only been a handicap but also a precondition for thecapitalist organization of labor, which was, perhaps, indispensable. 38 But the guild, ofcourse, could not give birth to the modern citizenry capitalist ethos. Only the methodicalway of life of the ascetic sects could legitimate and put a halo around the economicindividualist impulses of the modern capitalist ethos.